The Brampton Beast will have several massive holes to fill for next season as leading scorers David Vallorani and David Pacan have signed with European teams for next season, after only one season with the Beast.
Pacan heads to the Slovakian Extraliga to play with Ladislav Nagy on HC Kosice, while Vallorani, along with another Beast Luke Pither, heads to Almtuna IS of the Swedish Allsvenskan league.
This is a huge blow to the Beast as Vallorani and Pacan were fifth and sixth respectively in ECHL scoring, leading the way to the Brampton franchise having its most successful season. Vallorani had 83 points, with 32 goals and 51 assists, while Pacan shared the league lead with 41 goals, and adding an additional 41 assists.
Pither put up 44 points, good enough for sixth in team scoring, but excelled in man-advantage and high pressure situations, second on the team in points during the playoffs with eight in 12 games.
In addition, these three players accounted for 18 game-winning goals this season, six each, accounting for 45% of the team’s regular season wins. They also scored 42% of the team’s power play goals.
Despite dominant play in the ECHL this year, neither player got a sniff from the Beast’s parent affiliate Montreal Canadiens. Pacan was initially invited, then removed from the list, to the Canadiens training camp in September for some reason. He managed to sign a short PTO with the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL where he played six games garnering two assists.
As for Vallorani, among the top scorers in the ECHL, he went unwanted at a higher level spending the season exclusively with the Beast. Five years removed from his NCAA years, he has yet to get a single game’s chance in the AHL.
Pither received a one-game PTO with the Utica Comets this past season, with a few games with the St. John’s IceCaps and Syracuse Crunch the season prior.
The nature of the ECHL is such that players often transfer between it and European league trying to build up their capital.
Two other Beast players from this past season’s edition have also joined the ranks in Europe. Defenceman Tim Billingsley joined the Notingham Panthers in the EIHL. Lucas Venuto is headed to Borlange HF of the Swedish Division One.
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